GUNS Magazine July 2014 Digital Edition

the long and the Short of it are lonG-barreleD hanDGunS more accurate? not alwayS. ack in the ’60’s, when I was a kid-shooting bull’seye, I noticed most of the young and prime-oflife shooters used long-barreled pistols. The S&W Model 41 with 7-inch tube, the High Standard Supermatic series with fluted 7.25-inch barrel, and the 6-7/8-inch Ruger Mark I. The older guys, however, were much likelier to “go short” with a 5.5-inch heavy barrel on their Smith, H-S or Ruger. When I asked why, in those days before optical sights on .22 target pistols, I always got the same answer: “When my eyes got older, I could see the front sight better with a shorter sight radius.” B Massad ayoob The curve at the butt of the baby Glock locks into the hollow of Mas’ palm (arrow) in a way larger pistols can’t. Yes, that’s a 17-round Glock 17 magazine in the G26. Mas runs his Glock 34 over the GSSF Indoor course (shot outdoors here), and comes up short on center-X hits. Well, the years went by quick. When baby Glocks came out in the mid-1990’s a lot of folks, including me, discovered we often shot tighter from the bench rest than with their longer-barreled brethren. The same proved true a couple of years later when Glock brought out the subcompact .45 ACP Glock 30. It “benched” a tad tighter than their full-size G21. Proportionally more rigid shorter barrels (some 3.8-inch on the G30, 3.42-inch on the others) were theorized to be the reason. Back then, I managed to win the Stock Service Pistol division at an IDPA match with a little Glock 26, but wrote it off as either luck or a fluke, and went back to the Glock 17 and similar size guns for that sort of thing. Foundation), mentioned a couple of years ago master shooters such as Bryan Dover, Grady Whitelaw and Mike Ross won the overall MatchMeister title at some GSSF events— beating the scores fired with full-size Glocks by all comers, including themselves. James Linebarger later joined this elite list. Intrigued, I decided to try the little Glock 26 myself, instead Mas’ G26 is tracking to the next target, with brass in the air from his last double tap, at the GSSF Subcompact event in Clearwater, Fla., earlier this year. of the 4.5-inch G17 I usually shot in Master Stock. It turned out my scores with the little Glock were about the same, if not a bit better, than what I did with the full-size gun and the same 9mm ammo. In September 2012, I managed to take second place in Master Stock at the Salt Lake City GSSF shoot, running a G26 against full-size Glocks. (Bryan Dover beat me, but that’s like being beaten by Jerry Miculek at a revolver match or Rob Leatham at the Single Stack Classic: it makes you feel proud of placing second.) Time marched on. In December 2013, I borrowed my girlfriend’s little Glock 26 for an IDPA match, so I could shoot the backup gun side event and the main match with the same gun, and managed to win First Master in Stock Service Pistol division with it. A month later, at a GSSF match in Clearwater, Fla., it was all I could do to place Top 10 in Master Stock against the service-size Glocks and Top 15 against the long barrel ones. I managed Top 3 in both Subcompact division with the Glock 26 and Major Sub with the .45 ACP Glock 30. The G30 had always been my best gun at GSSF, giving me wins in Major Sub a couple of times in the past. A pattern was emerging. TIME GOES ON My friend Danny Ryan, who runs the GSSF (Glock Sport Shooting 12 WWW.GUNSMAGAZINE.COM • JULY 2014